Introducing AX64 Time Machine - hybrid imaging/snapshot software

Thank you all. I have TrueImage and hate some of the issues there but sure wish we could password protect a full image (which we should be able to do with a click) and VERIFY that the backup is good. Anyway, I will keep trying this on my XP system...for 30 days at least. Main issue now is that rescue media sees my RAID, but, of all things, will not see my Logitech M325 wireless USB mouse! Still, password protection is valuable when backing up to an eSATA or USB device.

 

Hi MPSAN

Good to hear you are trying out AX64TM. As time goes on, I think you will see how unique this program truly is and this is just the beginning I am sure Isso will address any issues you may have in your trial period because in my opinion, their support is some of the BEST I have witnessed from ANY company and I suspect this will continue to be the case, top notch, timely support in every way which has been impressive to watch since its early alpha stage.

Keep us informed as to how things go for you, and i am sure many others will join in to assist where they can. Isso has had some wonderful help from so many here at Wilders, and I am sure it has made his job a little less stressful as the kind folks here offer their expertise.

Have fun!

Jim

 

Thank you, RollBackFrog, for the quick reply.

 

Thank you, Jim.

Yes, I was one of the people early on, but had issues with XP. I have had PM's with ISSO and am getting there. I sure would feel more comfortable if we could verify an image after the backup. I still am not sure how to restore to a new drive, if required. I assume that if we have the first FULL Backup and , perhaps 10 after that, do we just choose to restore the last most current backup?

 

Hello MPSAN,

Yes, you are correct, if that is the point in time that you want to restore. Do not worry as to any snapshot being a full image or an incremental one. Think of AX64 as a "Time Machine" and decide what point in time you want to do your restore to. The backup browser gives you the point in time that each snapshot/image was taken. When you do the restore it matters not what type (full or incremental) the snapshot is as AX64 automatically takes all of that into account when it does the restore. All you need to do is decide and know is what time you want to restore to and AX64 does the rest.

I both HTH and maybe answers some of your questions...

 

Thank you and everyone on this forum...even ISSO.

At some point the backup drive will be just about full. At that point do we remove all of the early backups, except the full one and a few of the latest? Do we just remove, and then create an AXTM directory again?

 

Hello,

You can do it either way. You can use the AX64 Backup Browser to merge whatever points is time that you wish, thus saving some space. You could also delete the contents of the AXTM folder manually and then AX64 will recognize this and start fresh with a new full back-up. You can even rename the AXTM folder if for some reason you wanted keep the old back-ups and AX64 will create a new folder and new full back-up. You could then use the backup browser to go to the renamed folder if you needed to restore to one of those images. It just all depends on what you want and how much space you want to recover. Just remember if you go the delete what points in time you wish route, do it through the backup browser by selecting which snapshots you wish and then merge. If you try to delete them manually, you will break the image "chain" and very possibly will corrupt all the images.

 

All I need is about 4 or 5 snapshots. To purge all your excess snapshots, just rename your AXTM folder in your external HD and create a new folder called AXTM. Now make a backup which will be your new baseline in the new AXTM folder, and delete the folder you renamed. My thanks to Rollback Frog for that one.

I think you mean especially Isso right?

 

For whatever reason, I am unable to use AX64. When I install it it tells me that my 30 day free trial has expired, which is weird because I don't remember ever installing it. Maybe I installed it during the alpha/beta test never used it? Whatever. The question I'm trying to answer is, what is the difference between ax64 and 1-Click restore Pro (by Kevier)? The latter software is simply imaging software, and it takes forever to create an restore the "snapshots." I am wondering if this software is any different than that. Will I have to stop using my current imaging software to use it, if I only use that software cold boot image making and restoring?

Thanks

 

One of the main difference I know is that it allows hot restore, you can restore your system disk while windows is running, and it only restores the changed sectors since the last snapshot, so it's fast. After restore, you reboot and you have recovered your system disk.

 

I ran Piriform's Defraggler defragmenter program and defragged my main partition, C:\ drive.
After defragmenting it, I ran AX64 and thought to do a new backup.
It gave me two times in a row, when trying to start the backup:

Backup error C1000006 code - 2147212536

On a third try, it started to backup.
Nothing had changed on the partition, other than Avast Internet Security updating it's database.
And boy was the "incremental" backup about to be big compared to the earlier one...
Yes it was.
Earlier was 416Mb, this one would been 6Gb, but when it was at 100% and finishing the backup, it gave:

Backup error 20 code 32

and the backup did not complete, but it left a file at size of 6Gb on the external usb drive where I'm storeing the backups.

I did a 4th try...
now it completed the backup in 1 min 2secs,and the size of the backup
is only 7 megabytes which might make sense..

 

Re: Quick Question

Hi Alex

I run AXTM with Process Lasso, and have detected no issues. However, just to be sure that is so I have excluded the AXTMapp.exe process from 'ProBalance Restraint'.

 

That is what I do on a weekly basis; rename the AXTM folder on the back up drive (usually with date & time stamp for quick reference) and then let AXTM create a new one when it comes to the next hour backup...at which point it automatically create a new FULL backup image as the basis for on-going incremental snaps.

I then keep a number of weeks worth of folders and just delete the oldest of these every time I start a new week.

As twl said...we can thanks Da Frog for that suggested approach.

 

You can keep using your existing imaging software (I overlapped the use of AXTM with ATI...which I was using previously but have stopped doing so) but once happy with AXTM's capabilities I do not see why you would need to use anything else...but that is may just me...

 

Hi Stode

In terms of the post defrag incremental being 'big compared to the earlier...' I think that Froggie covered it off in his earlier response:

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=2262826&postcount=3575

As to the error codes experienced I think that you will need to await Isso's review & response (but you may want to log a ticket over at the AXTM website and collect & attach current logs to that...hopefully they will provide the team with insight into the causes of the issues.

 

Hi Pete

I don't see why not because the contents of the saved folder are just images. As long as you have the initial full back up plus the appropriate incrementals, I would assume so...but what would be the point unless you were worried that your clean install was faulty/no good and you wanted to go back to a pre Clean Install position?

 

Defragging the drive to be backed up is obviously an bad idea.
And I think there is definitely something wrong with the snapstore aka restore done in windows environment..
In windows, restoring the snapshot took like 5 minutes (i think it never actually finished off), and when using USB bootable stick with the recovery media on it, it took over half an hour to restore the snapshot.. (snapstore done via this way was fine, and everything is as they're suppose to be,also avast..)

Here's some error screens i received after trying to restart the computer,after doing a restore in windows ...
It failed to boot even in safe-mode..

http://imgur.com/0rNeBQ8,6NrKhxR

Obviously the image restores needs to be done outside of Windows, just to be safe..
The two test snapshots I had taken after defragmenting the drive were failiours..
There happened something other strange too..
I restored an snapshot with Norton Internet Security on it, all my short cuts and start menu items were gone, and when starting Keepass, keepass informed it's exe is corrupt and can not work ..
In one snapshot restore, my avast internet security's 3 years license was gone,and it said subscription over!

At the moment,I certainly can not rely 100% on this software only, to take my backups, there is just too many flaws in it atm..
But I truly hope in the future I could forget Acronis True Image's recovery media..

 

Hi Stode

I think that the time difference in restores is explainable by the fact that the In Windows (Hot) restore just restores difference between where you are coming from and where to you select to go to, whilst the Outside Windows (Cold) restore works differently; it restores from the base (full) image plus all increments up to the point you want to get back to.

Have to say that I have had the odd issue, i.e., rare, with the 'Hot' restore function...but nothing that I can put my finger on as to the cause. And if the 'hot' fails I just go for a 'Cold' restore (which has NEVER in my experience failed)...but as I said before, that occurrence is very rare.

In terms of:

I recall bgoodman reporting something that sounds similar and I think that Isso was investigating...perhaps one of them would like to comment on that. Personally I have never found that with AXTM...but I did find that with ATI 2013 when I tried a 'Cold' backup and restore...and since then when I have used ATI I have stuck to 'Hot' backup / 'Cold' Restore...until I ditched ATI recently in favour of reliance on AXTM only.

 

I believe what Peter is saying, and Peter correct me if I am wrong, after a clean Windows install would an AX64 snapshot bring your system back to normal, no need to install a gazillion programs and redo all of their settings?

That was the magic (one of many) of FirstDefense and I actually did this. Clean install, that simply install FirstDefense, the only program that I needed to install besides Windows. Go to my last FD archived Snapshot, restore it, bingo, my system was completely current without me having to do one other single thing.

Acadia

 

Now I am confused...if you take an image with AXTM, clean install the OS, re-install AXTM and then restore the image taken before the clean install of the OS, surely you are putting everything back to the way it was before the clean install...INCLUDING the OS...so that you would have the old install rather than the clean in place? What have I missed here

EDIT: Hi Peter, just seen your last post and now understand...and as far as I know at present the answer is 'No' as there is no feature to exclude specific folders and/or files, at present...but I do know that the feature has been asked for over at the AXTM website (along with several interesting featurettes) and I believe that Isso & the Team are working on this one.

If you have not already why not take a look at: http://feedback.ax64.com/forums/206143-general

 

I think it would be a great idea for people buying a new computer to get AX64 and do a snapshot as soon as they got their new computer configured. Then rename the AXTM folder and date it.

 

But has anyone actually tested or done this?

Acadia

 

I've done something similar but not quite the same. I've restored a Windows 7 image that was made before AX64 was ever installed. Then installed AX64 and reverted to an AX64 image that was made after the Windows 7 image I had just restored from. Not sure if that makes sense or not...